Trying to bring on National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies on board -- not for funding opportunities so much, but for technical help on issues ranging from agricultural water to medical devices. Please email Julie and cc Carleen and Sarah re: programmatic ideas. Also, Carleen and Charlie (BFFF) will be involved.

Julie is hoping to have monthly calls with round 2 communities. Please be on lookout for these! (Hoping to begin second week of December)

At HQ, doing debriefings for regions that didn’t get preference

Legislation may get Republican co-sponsor in KIrk;

Big shout out to Tom Murray! He is retiring from EPA. Congratulations, Tom. He created the IMCP Playbook, and much more.

Tom Murray:Yes, retiring, but plans to keep brain warm...Before he leaves, he wants to carry on conversation with non-federal funders. Conference call to be sent out for meeting in December. Sarah Lee will send out information on information the group has requested.Playbook -- looking to add more to this in the non-federal finance playbook part.Will still be on the air somewhere...will get up from beach chair and answer the phone!!

Agenda:Follow-up on last week’s questions so that those things do not get lost:

Utah - Andrew. Andrew, Julie, could you give us update on this? Been kind of busy, but will follow up later

Sense of # of IMCP’s tied to major universities? Julie -- Partnerships - most of the consortiums have some University, College, or Community College as a member of the regional consortiums. Andrew -- Question is more about linkages with research Universities. Will refine specific question for sending out to the other consortiums for their input.

Advance MI is tied to three Tier 1 research institutions: University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University, also 23 other colleges and universities. A complete list of partners can be found here: http://www.advancemimanufacturing.com/partners

South-central ID is working with University of Idaho/Washington State University -- although the research focus is still being worked out. Meeting with the University folks scheduled for next month.

Chicago - Mainly University of Illinois, along with Northwestern Univestity

Michigan - David. Aggregate listing of awarded funding totals? What has been the experience for the first round IMCP communities in capturing funding for their initiatives? Are those successes close to what was implied in the program announcement for the IMCP competition? Will data be shared? What are the success rates? Are there any best practices that can be shared to improve that success rate?

Connecticut - Carmen. List of potential grant opportunities? Report on conference call held 11/20. Julie and Charlie talking with federal agencies. What is the ETA on this? Julie hopes it will be by mid-December but...realistically, not until mid -January. Julie will circulate the existing list.

IMCP Summit Follow-up

· NNMI - Update? Dion (Dion on vacation)

· Branding - Logo and trademark ideas. Legal council must approve and this may take some time- Update? Julie. Due to legal constraints, regions cannot request trademark (logo) but EDA can. Julie will follow up with Carleen.

New Business:1. Discussion regarding creating on-going programmatic opportunities around 6 focus areas for the IMCP· Workforce Development - Derek Walvoord (Chicago),· Infrastructure -· Research and Innovation· Supplier Networks - Heidi Sheppard, Petra Mitchell· International Trade and Investment· Operational Efficiencies and Access to CapitalNeed to identify someone(s) to design the webinar/session/other format of information sharing for each of the topics.Who has a passion for the topic? Who has some cutting-edge ideas on what is working for their consortium?These people will work with Julie on structuring the format and content for the ongoing IMCP conversations. EDA-DC can provide the technological methods for whatever folks come up with.The potential is to have some kind of resource sharing actions at least monthly to facilitate support/networking opportunities for everyone’s individual strategies under the 6 economic ecosystem focus areas.

Julie is putting together a conference call specifically to talk about programming - Friday, December 4 at 12:00 noon EST. Details will be available on Tuesday, December 1. Interested folks should plan on participating.

2. Mapping linkages with NNMI, MEP, and National LaboratoriesNeed to identify people that want to work with Julie on creating a map of who does what at the NNMI, MEPs and National Laboratories to maximize IMCP community access to their resources across the geographies. Heidi Sheppard.Individual communities need to help identify the resources in their ‘back yard’.

3. Letter to Penny Pritzker/Jay Williams with an update on successesFirst draft will be routed to community members prior to mailing to DC. All communities must be in agreement for it to go out under the collective’s signature.

New Business:Jean Reid in Memphis. Int’l Trade and Investment. Found a private sector partner (Fed Ex) to help beef up our resources. Also -- Workforce entities under one umbrella. Jean will talk with Julie.$20 million investment chinese company; St Jude $9billion expansion. Cancer center $65 million expansion, plus anonymous gift to Methodist Hospital; lots of folksKaren Godden question: Hannover Messe. Any programs for this? (Pacific Northwest region will bring group). Julie Wenah is trying to explore possibilities for IMCP. As soon as she hears something, she will share

Ramona in Alabama: Been pleasure working with everyone, but husband has been transferred to Baton Rouge -- this will be her last call for IMCP.

Please note: we are no longer doing a round robin check in -- instead, we focus on collaborative issues and projects.So -- we really truly need each region to take a moment or two to write a few sentences about what you are doing!1st Round Designated Communities: (Please fill in what you can -- doesn’t have to be earth shattering!)Southwest Alabama

SW Alabama executive committee met on 11/17/15

SW Alabama Cluster Analysis will be completed by 11/30/15

Rural Sourcing, Inc (RSI), an IT firm will host a grand-opening on 12/3/15

“Demystifying DMDII event” -- the NNMI in Chicago. The DMDII is working to get the word out to the local community about what it can offer small to medium sized businesses. They wanted to let local suppliers of larger businesses know that they could participate in the white papers and research being conducted.

Meeting with partners to discuss private sector opportunities for PROBE, a tool available through MEP for organizational assessment (a ‘MRI’ of the business, so to speak). Goal is to roll out to 30 metal manufacturing firms over the next 6 months. Funding through JP Morgan Chase Foundation.

Please see our newsletter that was released this week at the following web link http://wsuventures.org/about-us/newsletter as it contains summaries of our recent activities as well as a listing of upcoming events.

The Milwaukee 7, in collaboration with JPMorgan Chase, is introducing an Export Development Grant Program to help manufacturers and service-based companies grow in international trade. The Export Development Grant Program will award matching funds of up to $5,000 to companies in Southeastern Wisconsin, both new to export as well as existing exporters, to take advantage of opportunities in international markets and to overcome obstacles.

What’s up? Staff attended the State’s economic development council meeting in Boise and participated in discussions around workforce issues. Unemployment in the region is at a rock bottom 3.7% and finding employees to fill available positions is getting tougher. (Anyone out there interested in moving to south-central Idaho????) We are also working with the College of Southern Idaho on skill assessments to help drive candidates to positions by crafting programs that directly target the existing job openings with immediate/short term training and certificates.

Plant tour and one-on-one conversation with one of our local cheese processing companies. Workforce issues - including 20 unfilled positions within the plant.

UAMMI just finished a business model canvas, adopted from the NSF I-Corps program (http://venturewell.org/i-corps/). We tested four “business lines” for our industry cluster; Innovation, Research and Development, Workforce Training and Developing, and UAMMI as an organization. With over 285 one-on-one interviews we found a few very interesting needs within our cluster. We briefed a community of stakeholders and the DoD’s OEA last week with our information. Primary in our findings is a need for better knowledge of the supply-chain underlying our cluster. Another distinct need we found in the community is the need for a neutral party advocate and coordinator for the advanced materials cluster in Utah. All in all a very rewarding experience and a font of information. We will spend the next month briefing out on our findings.

On Tuesday, Nov 17th, 56 members joined in the official kick-off of the 28-county Central Valley AgPLUS Food and Beverage Manufacturing Consortium (AgPLUS) at Sacramento Area Council of Governments.

The AgPLUS meeting updated members on its federal IMCP status and reviewed strategies, governance and resources. The AgPLUS kick-off included breakout sessions for its six work groups, to identify roles and responsibilities for each; process for project selection and prioritization; and activities and time lines. Work groups will begin meeting January 2016.

BFF UpdateTom Murray - EPA -- following the summit in DC discussion on non-federal funding potentials - specific projects make it easier for the non-federal folks to fund. Stephanie Powers (Council on Foundations) volunteered to coordinate an early-December meeting with CDFA, other foundations and impact investors. Looking to connect these resources with the IMCP communities. Currently creating a one pager - for next steps to help outline access to these sources of project/program funding.Heidi Sheppard - NIST -- traveled out to Minnesota and participated in their first kick-off meeting with executive team. Shared data on funding received by IMCP communities. Conference attendance - look forward to working with the group on implementing their initiatives.Follow-up on last week’s questions so that those things do not get lost:

Utah - Andrew. Sense of # of IMCP’s tied to major universities? Julie -- Partnerships - most of the consortiums have some University, College, or Community College as a member of the regional consortiums. Andrew -- Question is more about linkages with research Universities. Will refine specific question for sending out to the other consortiums for their input.

Advance MI is tied to three Tier 1 research institutions: University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University, also 23 other colleges and universities. A complete list of partners can be found here: http://www.advancemimanufacturing.com/partners

South-central ID is working with University of Idaho/Washington State University -- although the research focus is still being worked out. Meeting with the University folks scheduled for next month.

Michigan - David. Aggregate listing of awarded funding totals? What has been the experience for the first round IMCP communities in capturing funding for their initiatives? Are those successes close to what was implied in the program announcement for the IMCP competition? Will data be shared? What are the success rates? Are there any best practices that can be shared to improve that success rate?

Connecticut - Carmen. List of potential grant opportunities? Julie -- Commerce is currently working on compiling a document with the most accurate information on opportunities. This information will be disseminated in the upcoming weeks. Carmen -- Staff at Connecticut can help. Sarah -- Sasha at Puget Sound is also working on pieces and parts that can be shared.

IMCP Summit Follow-up

· Dion – NNMI - responses to email spreadsheetHeard from 5 people -- will set up a call after Thanksgiving for January webinar (NNMI system overview), then anticipates creating a webinar for each of the NNMI centers· Carleen – Branding update – Logo and trademark ideasWorking directly with Julie to provide options for logos and ideas that will be circulated for response from the IMCP communities. Legal council must approve and this may take some time. Julie is working to lay the groundwork for making the process run a little more smoothly.· Greg – Advanced CompositesLooking and workforce training options -- Michigan WIN is working on this initiative. Tennessee is also working to identify opportunities - potential for sharing information - either webinar and/or written information. Compilation of information -- including apprenticeships.· Sarah – AerospaceSarah will ping all the aerospace folks for follow-up on this topic.· Need someone to lead conversations for:· Funding? Tom Murray - EPA· Food? Still open ---· Hannover-Messe? Julie is working on this.. Petra -- Pittsburgh is actively engaged -- especially targeting opportunities for small manufacturersHeidi - EDA will have a booth at Hannover Messe - specifically for the IMCP communities?New business:1. Discussion regarding creating on-going programmatic opportunities around 6 focus areas for the IMCP· Workforce Development - Derek Walvoord (Chicago), · Infrastructure· Research and Innovation· Supplier Networks - Heidi Sheppard, Petra Mitchell· International Trade and Investment· Operational Efficiencies and Access to Capital

Need to identify someone(s) to design the webinar/session/other format of information sharing for each of the topics.

Who has a passion for the topic? Who has some cutting-edge ideas on what is working for their consortium?

These people will work with Julie on structuring the format and content for the ongoing IMCP conversations. EDA-DC can provide the technological methods for whatever folks come up with.

The potential is to have some kind of resource sharing actions at least monthly to facilitate support/networking opportunities for everyone’s individual strategies under the 6 economic ecosystem focus areas.

2. Mapping linkages with NNMI, MEP, and National LaboratoriesNeed to identify people that want to work with Julie on creating a map of who does what at the NNMI, MEPs and National Laboratories to maximize IMCP community access to their resources across the geographies. Heidi SheppardIndividual communities need to help identify the resources in their ‘back yard’.

3. Letter to Penny Pritzker/Jay Williams with an update on successes First draft will be routed to community members prior to mailing to DC. All communities must be in agreement for it to go out under the collective’s signature. 4. Additional items? Please type in, along with your name.1st Round Designated Communities: (Please fill in what you can -- doesn’t have to be earth shattering!)Southwest Alabama

Organizing the first Quarterly Innovation Forum on December 11th to train the trainers and introduce small and medium manufacturers to the DOE Small Business Voucher Program at several National Labs. The next application round for businesses is in February. This is being held as part of the UAS and CyberSecurity, “Connecting the Dots”day-long event at the December 11/12 International Drone Exposition.

Brownfields -- we are working with local EPA brownfields folks to figure out what we can do to get the word out to our IMCP community that there are a lot of resources out there to help. Apparently our part of the country is the lowest utilizer of brownfields assistance, even though we have a lot of areas that need it! We’re trying to figure out why, and what we can do about it.

We met with folks from Columbia and Brown universities, who are going to write a report on the results of one of our Catalytic Investments (the NextGen LEAN program). This program helps small and medium suppliers improve processes, cut costs and become more efficient. The NextGen LEAN program was created in Wisconsin through their MEP. Thanks, Wisconsin!

Our region was host to a PA-WV POWER Roundtable with representatives from The White House, EDA and several other federal agencies connecting with local partners on coal communities diversification strategies.

We are getting ready to launch our DOD/EOA initiative

We were featured in Site Selection magazine as “The Magnet for Manufacturing”

Our Site Development Fund awarded its first project, a brownfield site in northern West Virginia.?

Working with the University of Idaho/Washington State University on an industry tour schedule for early December. Discussions will include UI/WSU capabilities for research and collaborations in South-Central Idaho. Presentation to the Business Plus Board of Directors regarding the IMCP and opportunities for engaging partners in implementation. Drafting EDA application for technical assistance funding to support staff time associated with coordinating IMCP activities. Working with graphics design/marketing agency on potential IMCP logos/trademark ideas for submission to other IMCP communities and then to EDA for approval.

On Tuesday November 17th we will be hosting our AgPlus IMCP Partner Meeting in Sacramento, CA . The purpose of this meeting will be to review our strategies to improve regional manufacturing ecosystem, discuss our governance, structure, and discuss the process for moving forward. We also will be reviewing potential funding opportunities working in partnership with the nine federal agencies engaged with IMCP communities. We intend to have over 50 partners in attendance.

This from the National Association of Development Organizations' latest newsletter. (If you don't belong to NADO, or aren't signed up for their regular newsletters, go to www.nado.org.)

EDA Funding Opportunities: Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance ProgramsEDA is now accepting grant applications to provide investments that support construction, non-construction, technical assistance, and revolving loan fund projects under its Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) programs. Grants and cooperative agreements made under these programs are designed to leverage existing regional assets and support the implementation of economic development strategies that advance new ideas and creative approaches to advance economic prosperity in distressed communities. EDA provides strategic investments on a competitive- merit-basis to support economic development, foster job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States. Click here for more information and with instructions on how to apply.EPA Funding Opportunities: Brownfields FundingThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a new Request for Proposals (RFP) for fiscal year (FY) 2016 Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Funds, and Cleanup Grants. Click here for further information, frequently asked questions, and application instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18.

Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving GrantsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking applicants for a total of $1.2 million in Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Cooperative Agreements to be awarded in 2016. Cooperative agreements will be awarded to local community-based organizations seeking to address environmental and/or public health concerns in their communities through collaboration with other stakeholders, such as state and local governments, industry, academia and non-governmental organizations. Organizations are encouraged to have a connection between the proposed project activities and applicable neighborhood, local, city, or regional land use planning efforts. Proposals due February 12, 2016. Click here to learn more and apply.

HHS Funding Opportunities: Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP)The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now accepting applications for the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP). The purpose of the SHIP is to help small rural hospitals of 49 beds or less, do any or all of the following: 1) enable the purchase of equipment and/or training to help hospitals attain value-based purchasing provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA); 2) aid small rural hospitals in joining or becoming accountable care organizations, or create shared savings programs per the ACA; and 3) enable small rural hospitals to purchase health information technology, equipment, and/or training to comply with meaningful use, ICD-10 standards, and payment bundling. Click here for more information and with instructions on how to apply.

Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design Issues Funding Opportunity: Request for Proposals for Funding and Design Assistance The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) has issued a request for proposals to rural communities interested in applying for funding to host a community design workshop in either 2016 or 2017. CIRD offers annual competitive funding to six small towns or rural communities to host a two-and-a-half day community development and design workshop. With assistance from a wide range of design, planning, and creative placemaking professionals, the workshops are intended to bring together local leaders from non-profits, community organizations, and government agencies to develop actionable solutions to the communities’ pressing development challenges. The communities will receive additional support through webinars, conference calls, and web-based resources on www.rural-design.org.

The deadline for submitting a proposal is January 12, 2016 at 11:00 pm ET. Successful applicants will receive a $10,000 stipend (that must be matched one-to-one) in addition to in-kind professional design expertise and technical assistance valued at $35,000. Click here to view the full request for proposals. Selected communities will be announced in March of 2016 and workshops will be held during the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2017.

Cohort 1 Updates

Southwest Alabama – Kathy Thompson

Drafting 2nd EDA planning grant – initial focus on branding and marketing – now focusing on specific sector driven activities – creation of a strategic plan for rural areas – State Legislature passed some incentives that can be used in the rural areas

Sector specific for maritime – shipbuilding company – working on skills transfer between companies

Hoping to become a national ‘Work-Ready’ community – emphasizing rural areas

IMCP – Congressional visit – looking at how to focus more on apprenticeships